Flight Instructor
What the work is
Educates and trains students in flight procedures, navigation and aircraft operations, and supervises their flight practice, ensuring safety and compliance with aviation regulations.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Develops detailed and structured lesson plans encompassing theoretical knowledge and practical skills
- Instructs students in the theory and principles of flying aircraft
- Conducts pre-flight and post-flight inspections of aircraft to ensure safety and airworthiness
- Demonstrates and explains the operation of aircraft controls and equipment
- Provides practical flight training to students, including take off, landing and manoeuvring
- Monitors and evaluates students' progress, and provides feedback on their performance
- Maintains logs of student performance and their flying hours
- Prepares students for flight certification exams
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a regional airline and a flight school operating from a small country airport. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A smooth landing in poor weather, and passengers who clap without knowing why
- A student who was terrified at their first lesson flies solo for the first time
- A controller's shift where every aircraft sits exactly where it should
Hard days
- A weather change that cancels your flight, with a full plane of cross passengers
- Early starts, late finishes and body clocks that never settle
- A call that is right for safety and wrong for everyone's schedule
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 299133, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.